In case that you have arrived here just now after some few days of nasty downtime, here’s what’s been going on, and I humbly apologize for these on and off downtimes that I’ve been getting lately. This site isn’t the only one that was affected, but also the others (including my host’s own blog and personal sites) hosted on that particular server. It’s a nightmare to run into so many downtimes, not just with us web designers/developers, but also for our frequent users. It becomes a lot more horrible if the sites you were maintaining were business-related sites, such as your portfolio or even a site you’re currently maintaining for someone else’s profile site or small business site. I happen to host all kinds, including someone else’s site.

My host’s domain recently expired, and that the owner of the domain did not renew it. Luckily, my friend (the host) is a reseller of a larger hosting service, and that it’s forgivable that she is busy, but hopefully she could get to the renewal very soon so that tech support and myself can proceed in getting a lot of fixes completed. Now, what happens if your host is an actual professional web hosting company, such as Dreamhost, SiteGround, A Small Orange, etc.? Normally, you would just search for another host that’s more reliable than the one you’re in, correct?

I’ve had a long history of web host companies, and I have moved a lot. I was hosted the longest at Dreamhost, however, job layoffs and other expenses really dragged me down and had no choice but to find other alternatives. I still love Dreamhost, but I would much prefer something small scale but at the same time, affordable and reliable service. I found my current host through the old Pick-MeNET service. I thought about opening a site that’s similar to Pick-MeNET one day, but at the moment, it’s not a priority. Regarding choosing the right host, you need to look at (almost) every single aspect of a good web host: package prices, features offered, prompt customer/tech support, downtime percentage, so on, and so forth.

I really don’t have any host preference that you guys can check out because it’s really up to the user. If you’re a non-designer/developer and would like to have your own website (a personal blog or even a small business), you would have to do a lot of extensive research throughout the net or look for anyone you know who has a vast knowledge of web hosts1. How would you know what to look for in a web host? That all depends on what you want for your future site. If it’s just a plain HTML/CSS site that you would want to maintain on your own without any other fancy programming languages involved, you would want to go for a smallest package available. If you plan to do a whole lot more than just building one website, such as a blog or form your own online community, then you would want something larger.

At this point, I am sure that everything will be resolved soon. I don’t want my fellow hostees to feel upset and then look at my friend as being irresponsible or anything like that for this really bad situation. I’m there to help, as well as a few who expressed their interest in helping out as well. Let’s all just see what happens.